Managing LENA Home participants: When to complete, drop, or move a child

You will change a participant's enrollment status if the participant completes the program, or if the family decides to leave the program.

This article explains the enrollment status options for LENA Home and what to do in some common situations.

Enrollment status options - what do they mean?

Enrolled

Every new participant starts out as "enrolled." A child remains enrolled as long as the family is actively participating in the LENA Home program.

Active participation means:

  • the child is scheduled to start recording soon or has made a valid recording within the last 45 days, and
  • the family is working toward completing the recommended number of LENA Home sessions.

Completed

When a participant has met or exceeded the recommendations for recordings and coaching sessions, change the child's status to "completed."  

Please refer to your LENA Home Coaching Sessions guide for more information on these recommendations.

Completed status is the goal - celebrate!!! 

Dropped

Unfortunately, some families will not be able to complete the LENA Home program.

When an enrolled family is unable or unwilling to finish, the child is considered "dropped."  

As a rule of thumb, drop a participant when:

  • the participant has not made a recording in over 45 days, and
  • the family is no longer actively participating in the program.

Example reasons for dropping a child:

  • Family has moved away before completing the program
  • Family is too busy to participate, or is no longer interested
  • Family is non-compliant or can't be reached
  • Child refuses to wear the LENA clothing
  • Family hasn't turned in a valid recording despite good-faith efforts to teach them how

The color coding on the Group Dashboard Detail helps you quickly scan for children who need to be completed or dropped, or who may need just a little nudge to keep going:

  • Red = last valid recording was more than 45 days ago. Did the child complete the program, or is it time to drop this child?
  • Yellow = last valid recording was 31-45 days ago. Is it time to wrap up this family, or ramp up their participation?
  • Green = last valid recording was within the last 30 days. Recordings are on track.

Special circumstances - drop or move?

Provider/agency transfer

If a child needs to transfer to a different LENA Home provider/agency, you can move him to a new group in LENA Online. All of his recording data and Snapshots move with him to the new group/agency.

As long as the family's participation is relatively uninterrupted, this is a great way to maintain report continuity for the family and keep them on track toward program completion.

Taking a break

When a family needs to take a break for more than a couple months, it's usually best to drop the child.

If the family is able to resume later, use your best judgment to decide whether to change the dropped child's status back to enrolled, or to create a new instance of the child. Keep in mind that the LENA Home coaching sequence is designed to be delivered as a cohesive program. If a lot of time has passed - and especially if the family had previously completed very few recordings/sessions - it may be best to start over for a few reasons:

  • key information from the core sessions may need to be reviewed to build a strong foundation
  • the family structure and important family routines discussed in coaching may have changed significantly
  • the child may have "leveled up" from infant to toddler, putting a whole new twist on Talking Tips and goals!